Shots in the Dark
by a ship nerd
Summary: The long awaited sequel to poet or bandit is here. With mystery around every corner. Read poet or bandit first if you haven't yet.
1. Poet in deep ice

_The storm howled around me. The cold wind and snow from the blizzard nipped at my face, leaving a frozen sting in its wake. My eyes remained in a squint, trying to see past the white out plaguing my senses. It didn't matter too much, I still had her signal, I could find her. I would find her._

 _No matter the cost._

…

I pulled my tired body off the floor and stretched, hearing my back pop a couple times. I yawned as I stretched, tired from last night's ordeal. It had been weeks since I had moved into Jake's Chalet. I was still adjusting to the new schedule, getting up in the morning, eating breakfast, putting on my pup pack, getting on my snowmobile, and following Jake up the mountain while Everest stays at the Chalet in case of any problems occur there.

This would continue for a couple of weeks, then me and Everest would switch out everyday. I would take 3 days up the mountain, and she would do the same. We each would have a day off sometime during the week. Weekends were hot spots for tourist activity.

My snowmobile resembled my motorcycle in most ways, moved like it too. It had a center tread at the back, unlike Everest's who's had one tread on each side. My snowmobile also resembled one that a human would use, but was much smaller. It also had an emergency sled, hot chocolate dispenser, and a bottle of oxygen.

My pack actually was very different from Everest's. Her pack focused on rescuing others. My pack focused on after the rescue. I had an emergency blanket, skis, a first aid kit, protein bars, adrenaline shots, a grappling hook, 200 ft of rope, and a flare gun with 3 shots. The pack was designed to help treat and keep an injured skier or snowboarder alive until they could be transported to a hospital.

I had gotten my own pup tag and collar. As I had requested it had a red cross in the center, a flair in the top left corner, a flashlight in the top right corner, and a pair of skis in the bottom corner. It may have been a lot to have on one collar. But it would reflect both me and what I did. I had even gotten used to the itch.

Breakfast. I forgot how eating three meals a day could be so amazing. For the first time in years I felt satisfied, everything Jake made for me and Everest always had just a pinch of liver. I mean I knew Everest loved liver, but how she wasn't tired of it was a mystery to me.

Speaking of, Everest and Jake currently were out on the mountain. Today was my day off, I was looking forward to relaxing. After stretching, I brushed the loose dirt off my body is had gathered from last night. I would probably stay in my room for a while, then I might take a bath. I had my snowmobile and motorcycle, but not a pup house. I had told Ryder that I really didn't want one, didn't need one.

I had taken part of the basement storage room to accommodate my needs. Surprisingly, I had found out that my old house wasn't actually that far from the Chalet. So it wasn't much of a problem to move everything I needed from there. I didn't really have an awful lot of anything to move anyway.

I opened the hatch leading from the cellar to the surface world, and climbed up into the the Chalet.

…

I was sitting in front of the TV screen, watching the weather forecast carefully. It was almost the end of November, it was cold, all the leaves on the trees had fallen and had been raked. But it still felt like autumn. This year we had a late autumn and now a late winter. By looking at the forecast however, I could tell the late seasons were about to catch up to us.

There was a category 3 blizzard charging right at Adventure Bay. 'By the looks of it, it'll hit later today.' I thought to myself. Understanding the danger fast approaching, I decided to call up Jake and Everest to warn them of what was coming.

"Jake, Everest, it's Poet."

"Hey Poet. What's up?"

"You might want to think about closing the mountain for the rest of the week. We've got an inbound blizzard heading right for you. Category 3, not something you want to get caught in."

"Yikes, we better start evacuation. Poet, tell Ryder that we may have a ton of traffic heading for town. I'll take the bottom half of the mountain. Everest, you take the top."

"You got it Jake! Let move out!"

…

Something was wrong.

That much I could tell as the storm came closer and closer, with still no sign of Everest. I had been sitting on the doorstep, waiting over an hour for her to pull up to the Chalet.

2 weeks ago, me and Everest had officially declared our courtship with each other. We weren't exactly 'in love' so to speak, but we both knew about each other's crushes and embraced them in that way. But we never really had gotten into a serious relationship. It's not that we didn't want to, or we weren't brave enough. We just didn't see the logic in it.

We were apart for at least 12 hours a day, it would be very difficult to keep the relationship stable because of this. Not to mention we never have the same day off.

We still had feelings for each other. We would never deny that. A serious relationship just wouldn't work. We never had the time...

I couldn't wait any longer. The storm was starting to envelope the mountain, it wouldn't be long before it hit the Chalet. If Everest got caught out there in that storm, she probably wouldn't survive the night. So I did the only 2 things I could think of.

First, I tried to contact Everest directly with my pup tag. No response. Secondly, I jumped on my snowmobile and headed back up the mountain.

This was dangerous, and I knew it. Charging straight at a blizzard like that could mean instant death. Jake had evacuated everyone off the mountain besides me and Everest. I had a fix on Everest's beacon, so I was going for it.

…

I was close.

That much I could tell as I approached her signal. Despite barely being able to see, I could make out the silhouette of her snowmobile. It was on its side, partly buried under the snow. I parked along side it, jumped off my vehicle, and started sniffing. The wind, cold, and my allergies however were blocking my nose.

Despite this, I could still make out her scent. Being with her these past weeks ment I knew what she smelt like, so I…

…

Shut up you perverts…

It didn't take very long to find her. I could make out her scent, it ended right below me. So I started digging. It dug a few inches and there she was, barely breathing.

I ran back for my bottle of oxygen. I placed the respirator over her mouth, I took off my clothes and laid them over her body. That would keep her alive until the storm passed. Once that was done, I dug a ditch around her and got out my emergency sled. I placed that on top of her and covered it with snow.

Contrary to popular belief, snow is actually a very good insulator. It would help keep her warm until the storm cleared. Next, making sure I had all my supplies, I pulled off one of the funnels on Everest's snowmobile used for ejecting snow. I dragged it back over to the sled, made sure the sides of the sled were covered, save for one big hole from which I crawled inside the makeshift igloo from.

I sealed the hole with snow from the inside. Next I shoved the funnel up out what was left of the hole so I could still breath. Then, I snuggled up beside Everest, trying to warm her body. I fell asleep there. And I slept beside her for 16 hours.

…

When I woke up, I could hear that the storm and wind was gone, but it was nighttime still. I tried to push the sled off on me, but it wouldn't budge. There must be too much snow on top of it, I thought to myself. I pulled the funnel out and set it beside me. I began to try to dig my way out, but stopped when I realized I wasn't making any progress. The snow was as hard as ice, it was packed together, there was no way I could dig my way out of here.

We were trapped.

I couldn't think of any way I could escape this one. But I couldn't ponder anymore than that before I heard the distant humming of engines. I recognized them even from the distance I was at. It was the Paw patrol!

It was still nighttime, and I knew they must have launched a rescue immediately after the storm calmed down. My first instinct was to shout out the hole, but I realized they would have no chance of hearing me. I reached to stick something out the hole, but I realized it was still night time, the chance of someone seeing it would be near impossible. Then it hit me.

The flare gun!

I grabbed it and shot a flare out the hole, it flew straight up before exploding, then it slowly dropped out of the sky and landed on the ground near to where I was. When the flare went out, I waited for 30 seconds before firing another.

In a short time they were around me, but couldn't find the hole, and couldn't hear me shout. I fired the late flare, after that I heard Rubble's rig fire up and started digging us out.

"You'll be OK Everest." I whispered in her ear. "When we get out of this, I promise to make time for you, instead of waiting for it."

I layed back down next to her until we could be rescued.

…

After the rescue was complete, Everest and I were taken to the hospital. I was released from the hospital within hours of entering. Everest, however, was forced to stay for a while to recover from a flu that settled in.

I stayed beside her through recovery. And after she was released we started hanging out more. I feel like our relationship is blossoming.

I can't wait for what comes next.

…

It was near midnight, the lights were out in the Chalet, and all but one of the residents was asleep.

Poet opened one eye to make sure he was alone. Then he got up off the bed in his room, and walked over to a cabinet. He pulled open the cabinet, then pulled it out, leaving an empty space as to where he crawled into. He continued crawling forward into the tunnel until he reached the unfinished end. Once there, he checked the compass he had brought with him to make sure he was facing the right direction. The he continued his digging, everything three feet checking the compass.

"It'll be difficult to correct what needs to be done, balance will be key. But I will do it, I won't make the same mistake twice."

 **A/N: I know what you're all thinking right now.**

 **Will Poet and Everest click?**

 **What is Poet up to?**

 **Why is he secretly digging a tunnel?**

 **And most of all, What was his 'mistake'?**

 **To all that I say:**

 **In due time. *troll face***

 **Review for quicker release of all the other one shots. :)**


	2. Everest in a nightmare

Warning: the following chapter will have some dark and adult themes. Read at your own descression.

 **The night was almost pitch black without the moon and stars above to light the ground. In the forest, it was even darker below the tree line. Somehow despite the darkness there was enough light on the forest floor to show the shadows of the bushes and figures dancing around like rabid dogs. That's what it felt to the pup anyway.**

 **The pup in question was a terrified female husky. Had she been standing in one place, her whole body would be visibly shaking. She wasn't that kind of pup though. Her time in Antarctica had taught her to face her fears. What was chasing her right now however, wasn't her fear. Many in the world had seemingly been born with a fear of darkness, Everest wasn't among them, but this wasn't darkness she was running from.**

 **If it was just darkness, she really would not have been afraid. This was something bigger, older, and much more vicious, dangerous and deadly. All Everest could do was run, but that would only buy her some time. Here she would be engulfed in this dark presence, there was nothing she could do.**

 **Everest made the mistake of glancing back over her shoulder. Her eyes shot open wider that anyone would have thought possible. Because of this, she saw in complete horror as the darkness came crashing down on her harder than any avalanche could dream of doing.**

…

Everest woke up screaming. Milliseconds after her eyes shot open, she sat up breathing almost to the point of hyperventilation. After about 6 seconds, she started to calm down. At the same time, a smile came to her face.

But this smile wasn't one of relief that came from the realization it was just a nightmare, it instead was one of desire, lust almost. The smile and feeling crept all over her face, like a thick black poison, and spread until it covered her entire head and body.

As she sat there on her bed in her pup house, she could only breath one word, it was laced and coated with the same amount of lust her smile had.

"Wow," She breathed quietly, cobwebs in her mind too thick for her to notice the lingering shadows bleeding off of her body like blood in water.

…

Jake was growing more and more worried about Everest as the moments ticked by. 3 days ago, she had told him about a weird dream she had kept having. She kept claiming it was a good dream, but he had caught her once or twice screaming as she woke up.

When he confronted her, she just said that 'nothing was wrong' and refused to discuss it any further. When he heard that, he knew for a fact that something was wrong. If there was a problem, Everest usually was very open about it. Jake also started to notice that she started to have all the lights off.

She had even demanded it last night, proclaiming: 'I can't have the lights on, she said so.'

He had no idea who 'she' was or why the lights needed to be off, but he did know enough to know that this wasn't his Everest. He made up his mind.

Grabbing his phone, he walked outside to call Ryder and the Paw patrol.

But as he walked out, he heard the door slam shut behind him, followed by the sounds of the door locking. He tried the doorknob, it didn't budge.

…

The pups drove up to the Chalet. Jake was standing on the porch, a worried expression plastered on his face.

I was the first one to run over.

"What's going on Jake?" I asked him, my voice saturated in concern. If something was wrong with Everest, I needed to know. Jake sighed and shook his head.

"I don't know man. She's said she's been having some really weird dreams, but she's shut me out. The doggie door I installed can't be locked, but I can't exactly fit, ya know?"

"Alright," said Chase. "Everyone, let's head in-"

"No" I said flatly. Everyone stared at me, some looks were angry, some confused. "If we all go in at the same time, she might feel threatened. While I've been in town helping with the recovery of that flood that came after the winter ended, Jake has stayed here the whole time. I want to know a bit more about what's going on before we just barge in there."

I turned back to Jake. "Has anything wierd been happening to Everest? Has she been acting strange?"

Jake paused for a moment. "I have caught her wake up screaming, then telling me nothing was wrong and she had just had a great dream. But I don't know… you're the doctor, what do you think Marshall?"

"You know," said the dally. "This sounds like a mental problem Everest it having. I only have training for first aid, not this."

I nodded to him before saying: "Still, I feel she could use your help too. We'll call the rest of you guys in if we need some more support."

With that said, Marshall and I walked inside the Chalet. As the flap closed behind us, I called out to Everest in the dark. Just a few seconds later, she rounded the corner and appeared before us. Both of our eyes widened as we saw her. Marshall's on confusion, mine in horror. She had a smile on her face, but this wasn't an ordinary smile, this one was laced in something strange. On her face, were what looked like bedroom eyes. Was that lust I saw?

"Oh, it's you Poet." She half said half moaned. Yep, there was definitely some amount of lust in her voice. But that wasn't the only strange thing about her. The atmosphere that surrounded her had a sinister feeling to it. I was getting nervous, not the kind of nervous that you would get from meeting a hot girl for the first time, this was the kind of nervous you got from being at the top of the high board at the swimming pool.

The normal eye wouldn't have caught what I was seeing. But I could, and I did. Despite the dark, I could make out the shadows clinging to her, bleeding off of her.

"Umm, Everest? Are you alright?" Marshall asked both suspicious, and concerned.

"I've never been better," She replied, her voice not changing.

"Umm, Everest, it's rather dark in here. Could you tell me where we can turn on the lights?" I asked knowing what this was. She frowned.

"No, y-you can't turn on the lights. She said so."

"Ok, so where do I _not_ go so I don't turn them on, accidently?" It was worth a shot.

"Oh," partial relief faded lightly into her voice. "You don't have to worry about that. The Power Line underground has been acting up. Unless you're doing some heavy construction work you won't reach it." She paused for a moment. "Come on," She said as she got closer, her bedroom eyes growing more intense. The then whispered these three words: "I want you."

My cheeks turned as red as Marshall's firetruck.

"Ok! Well you seem to be busy here, uhhh, come on Marshall," I said quickly pushing him out the door. We looked at each other, and I had a look on that screamed 'you-will-never-speak-of-this-again-to-anyone.' As we walked down the porch, we were asked what was going on. Marshall started to say:

"Personally, by what I could tell, it seems that-"

"She has darkness on the brain."

The Paw patrol all stared at me as I interrupted another member of my fellow pups with those six words. I took a deep breath before continuing.

"I've seen this before. Only once, but I'm the only one alive who has seen it at all. I know a cure, but if she's too far along, it will kill her."

"Then let's not use it-"

"If we don't, she we suffer a fate worse than death."

"How could there be a fate worse than dying?"

"Trust me, this... this is."

"That could be a problem considering I don't."

I stared at Chase when he said that.

"You heard me right, _Poet,"_ he emphasised his disgust with my name. "I don't trust you. You've been a crook for the past three years. You really think I'm just going to believe you've changed enough to actually care about anyone here?"

I paused for a moment, closing my eyes. Then I took a deep breath and continued. "Weather you trust me or not doesn't matter. Jake and Marshall will tell you that there is something wrong with Everest. You can't deny that. I'm just telling you that I know what exactly is wrong. Not only that, I can help her. Ask any of the pups, they won't stand back and do nothing while one of their fellow pups is dying."

Chase decided to shut up before he said something he would regret. But I could tell he would not let it go. Regardless, I turned to the rest of the pups to inform them of what needed to be done.

"In order for the cure to work, we need to get the power back on. Are there any backup generators?"

I turned to Jake for an answer. He shook his head.

"I've been meaning to get one, I just haven't had the time ya know?"

"Why would we need to get one. We've got several right here."

I turned to Rocky, curious as to what he had said. Noticing my confusion, he decided to clarify.

"Our vehicles generate electricity. I'm sure I have some jumper cables in my truck."

He then proceeded to jump into the back of said vehicle, tossing out random toys, tools, and various other things. Until he hopped out with the specified items. I smiled.

"Good thinking Rocky. Let's get these things hooked up."

…

Everything was set up. The pups' engines were running, the jumper cables were tied on, all I needed to do was open the circuits and let the power flow. I nodded at Rocky, he returned the favor. Once again I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and pushed the circuits open.

Flashes and sparks of electricity flew around the circuits, making me jump back. I wasn't sure how long the circuits would stay intact until they burnt themselves out. So I ran into the Chalet, calling out Everest's name. I heard a groan from one of the back rooms, I ran to it.

"Everest?" I called into the brightly lit room. I could see her, she was lying on the floor. One of her paws was rubbing the side of her head, her eyes were shut from the headache. I walked over to her, she opened her eyes to me. We looked at each other, smiled, then hugged together.

…

Ryder came home a couple of days later from visiting some relatives. We had all made a promise however to never tell him. Nearly a week had gone by, everything seemed to be back to normal.

*But I knew that wasn't true.

The truth is that there is something big behind what happened to Everest. And it won't stop, it's going to*

To get my mind off of what happened, I've decided to plan a vacation for the pups and I. But first, I needed to talk to Everest about something.

…

I knocked on the door to Everest's pup house. I was greeted a few seconds later with a certain husky who was chewing on a liver treat. She stopped for a moment.

"Oh! Hi Poet! What's up?" She asked.

"The sky," I replied smiling. She rolled her eyes.

"Ha ha, very funny. Come on in."

I stepped inside after her, before sitting down next to her bed. I wasn't sure how to say this, but I figured I might as well try.

"Hey Everest."

"Yeah?"

"You know, your condition that you had…"

"What about it?"

"The condition you had has no real title, but I can say that you've been touched by darkness. Even after it's gone, it will still leave a stain. I've seen what happens to someone who is overcome with what you had-"

"Poet, just stop. You as much as I do the supernatural doesn't exist."

I stayed quiet. There was a long pause between us.

"Right?" She asked. I sighed.

"Everest, I've seen, I've _had_ , that condition. What comes after it might never go away, I just want you to know that."

I stood up and started walking out the door. I told her to be careful before I shut the light off.

Everest screamed.

I flew back around, flipping the light back on. I ran over to the hyperventilating pup, hugging her close, all the while trying to calm her down.

That was when we all first found out about Everest's new fear, a fear of darkness. Despite everything we did to help, nothing would ease it.

Hopefully the vacation I'm planning will help, especially because of who we're planning on visiting.

…

Everest was sleeping soundly by the fire. Poet smiled at her, she looked so cute when she slept. He turned back into the cellar, making his way over to the cabinet. He opened it and crawled through to the other side of the tunnel, standing up once he reached the exit.

He was inside a basement, his old house's basement. At the end of the room was a desk. On the desk was 2 stacks of paper, one written on, the other blank. Between those was a typewriter, a page still inside only half written on. He walked over to it, and sat down in the chair. Before long the ticking of a typewriter echoed inside the room.

Soon after that the page was filled, it was pulled out and sat on top of the 'written' pile. For a brief moment, the words on the page seemed to glow before it faded.

It was almost done, he just needed to be there when he wrote the climax.

 **A/N: more story, more questions. I'll give you all a hint as to what the answers are.**

 **They're a mystery. 'Insert trollface here.'**

 **This could be considered my Halloween special. Also, there will be no more one shots. I combined the last two into this one, so I don't need the last one.**

 **I will post one or two trailers for the sequel before releasing it.**


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